Retford railway station

Retford
The station building at Retford
Location
Place	Retford
Local authority	District of Bassetlaw
Coordinates	53°18′54″N 0°56′53″W / 53.315°N 0.948°WCoordinates: 53°18′54″N 0°56′53″W / 53.315°N 0.948°W
Grid reference	SK701803
Operations
Station code	RET
Managed by	Virgin Trains East Coast
Owned by	Network Rail
Number of platforms	4
DfT category	C2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.298 million
2005/06	0.320 million
2006/07	0.363 million
2007/08	0.358 million
2008/09	0.421 million
2009/10	0.374 million
2010/11	0.400 million
2011/12	0.409 million
2012/13	0.418 million
2013/14	0.431 million
History
Key dates	Opened 1849
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Retford from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Up Leeds express in 1954

Retford railway station serves the town of Retford in Nottinghamshire, England. and is 138 ¹⁄₂ miles (222.9 km) north of London Kings Cross and 16 ¹⁄₂ miles (26.6 km) south of Doncaster on the East Coast Main Line. It is also 23 ¹⁄₂ miles (37.8 km) south east of Sheffield on the Sheffield to Lincoln Line.

It has four platforms, two of which serve the East Coast Main Line while two located at a lower level and at right angles to the first pair serve the Sheffield to Lincoln Line.

The station

The first railway into Retford was the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway which opened on 16 July 1849 on their line between Sheffield (Bridgehouses) and Gainsborough. The Great Northern Railway line from Doncaster arrived on 4 September 1849 crossing the S&LJR on the level. It used the latter's station until its own was completed (on the site of today's higher-level platforms) on 1 August 1852. On 1 July 1859, the S&LJR (now the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway) began using the GNR station via a short connecting curve, and closed its original station.

The higher-level platforms (numbered 1 and 2) respectively serve southbound and northbound East Coast Main Line trains calling at Retford. Platform 1 (on the eastern side of the layout) adjoins the main station building. Between the two platforms tracks there are two further lines, used by fast trains not booked to call here.

Prior to the remodelling of the station, the two lines crossed at a flat crossing with a curve connecting the northern and eastern tracks, allowing trains on the Sheffield-Gainsborough line to call at the station. There were two northbound platforms - platform 2 (now closed) was on the eastern side of an island platform and platform 3 on the opposite side (still in use, now renumbered 2). Platform 1 handled southbound and eastbound trains. In addition, there was a single southbound line which passed in between platforms 1 and 2, rather than the two lines in place today. To relieve congestion on platform 1, there was a timber-built extension on the south curve (platform 1A) to allow Lincoln-bound trains to clear platform 1 proper.

The new lower-level platforms (originally numbered 4 and 5, now re-numbered 3 and 4) were added when the flat crossing between the two lines was removed and replaced with a bridge in 1965^[1] and the Sheffield-Gainsborough tracks lowered to pass beneath the main line. These works also necessitated the removal of the direct north-to-east curve, meaning that trains between Sheffield and Lincoln could no longer call at the original platforms without a reversal.

The former Buffet and First Class Dining room on platform 1 are currently used as clubrooms by The Bassetlaw (North Notts) Railway Society. The club has installed an interesting display of local railway images in the windows of the rooms.

Accidents and incidents

• On 13 February 1923, an express passenger train overran signals and was in a rear-end collision with a freight train. Three people were killed.^[2]

References in popular culture

Bill Bryson comments of Retford station, in his book Notes from a Small Island, that it is shown on railway maps in a typeface (and large filled circle graphic) marking it as equivalent to much more notable cities in northern England, and he therefore deemed it worth a visit.

Michael Palin of Monty Python fame recalls frequently visiting Retford Station as a youngster for train spotting, as it was in easy reach of his home city of Sheffield and provided access to legendary locomotives like the Flying Scotsman running on the East Coast Main Line of the former LNER.

Services

ECML

An Intercity 125 at the station following electrification.

The station's High Level platforms are served by Virgin Trains East Coast on a basic two-hourly frequency each way Mon-Fri, northbound to York and southbound to London Kings Cross. Additional peak period services run to/from Leeds, Edinburgh and Newcastle. A similar basic frequency also operates on Saturdays, but trains run through to Edinburgh or Leeds. Most services run by open access operator Hull Trains also call here.^[3]

Low Level

Northern services on the Sheffield to Lincoln Line call hourly each way Mon-Sat at the low level station,^[4] running eastbound to Lincoln Central and westbound to Sheffield and Adwick via Meadowhall. Northern's service to Doncaster is more frequent than the main line alternative, but takes considerably longer due to the indirect route. A small number of trains from Sheffield start/terminate here, including two that use the surviving connection via Whisker Hill Junction to reach platform 2 at High Level (a practice that was much more common in the 1970s when the Lincoln route had fewer through trains).

On Saturdays only, there are also three trains to Grimsby Town and Cleethorpes via Brigg. On Sundays, the frequency is two-hourly and only runs in the afternoon and evening; there are four services to and from Lincoln, with the rest starting and finishing here.

The new Northern Rail franchise agreement (due to come into effect in April 2016) will see significant improvements on this route - the Lincoln to Sheffield service will become part of Arriva Rail North's Northern Connect network (and be extended to Leeds via Barnsley), whilst the service frequency to & from Sheffield will be doubled (2tph weekdays, hourly on Sundays with all trains running to/from Lincoln).^[5]

References

1. Building of Retford Dive-under in 1964-5 'Signalboxes.com; Retrieved 17 June 2009
2. Hall, Stanley (1990). The Railway Detectives. London: Ian Allan. p. 83. ISBN 0 7110 1929 0.
3. GB National Rail Timetable, December 2015 Edition; Table 26
4. Northern Rail Timetable 32 Sheffield to Lincoln, 13 December 2015 - 14 May 2016Northern Rail; Retrieved 31 March 2016
5. Northern Franchise Improvements - DfT

• Dow, G., (1959) Great Central, Volume One: The Progenitors (1813-1863) , Shepperton: Ian Allan Ltd.

External links

• Train times and station information for Retford railway station from National Rail